Maersk Line merges MECL1 and ME4 ser­vices

maersk Line(In­dia and Sri Lanka clus­ter), the core liner ship­ping com­pany of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, an­nounced the merger of its MECL1 and ME4 ser­vices to op­ti­mise busi­ness from the In­dia sub­con­ti­nent to East Coast North Amer­ica and West Mediter­ranean. The MECL1 and ME4 ser­vices from be­ing stand­alone prod­ucts will com­bine into one ser­vice, pro­vid­ing cus­tomers di­rect con­nec­tions to and from North Amer­ica, while adding an Al­ge­ci­ras call on the cur­rent MECL1 ser­vice in or­der to cater to the West Mediter­ranean des­ti­na­tions, West Africa and East Coast South Amer­ica. This prod­uct will now also pro­vide ad­di­tional cov­er­age from Pi­pavav to the Western Mediter­ranean des­ti­na­tions.

Franck De­de­nis, Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor Des­ig­nate-Maersk Line (In­dia and Sri Lanka), said, “Maersk Line’s MECL1 ser­vice will now also call Al­ge­ci­ras in ad­di­tion to its tra­di­tional ports, ser­vic­ing a part of the West Mediter­ranean, Africa and East Coast South Amer­ica, which were ear­lier a part of the ME4 ser­vice, in ad­di­tion to the East Coast north Amer­ica and the Mid­dle East. In ef­fect, this one ser­vice will call on four ge­ogra­phies.” The tra­di­tional fast tran­sit times on the MECL1 ser­vice will now ap­ply for Spain, the Africas East Coast South Amer­ica as well. The ser­vice will con­tinue to main­tain its 93%+ sched­ule re­li­a­bil­ity as re­ported by Drewry for Q1 2013. An ad­di­tional di­rect call into Sa­van­nah has been added into the ser­vice to im­prove its North Amer­ica cov­er­age. Also, an ad­di­tional ship has been added into the net­work, im­prov­ing on-sched­ule re­li­a­bil­ity and ser­vice to the ge­ogra­phies MECL1 caters to.